The Gravitational Influence of Jupiter

Jupiter's gravitational field influenced objects a comet, probably originating from the urt cloud. This disturbance of its orbit sent it really close to the sun, where tidal forces then broke the comet apart. And this would in crease the rate of comets that would bombard the earth. These comets include objects like the chikalub impact object, which hit the earth about 66 million years ago and is thought to be responsible for extinction of non avian dinosaurs.